Assignor Nightmares

[PeteBooth]

Ozzy from the OP

he notices that the BR missed 1st base, but no one else seems to have noticed. The BU nonchalantly takes position B. The pitcher gets ready to pitch and the home team announcer says over the PA system: "The telecast clearly shows that BR missed 1st base so you might want to appeal.

I have underlined the relevant passage from the OP

The defense was not even thinking about appealing otherwise instead of F1 getting ready to pitch F3 would be saying "throw me the ball the runner missed the bag"

At least the way I am reading it it is APPARENT that absent the announcement from the PA announcer F1 would have simply pitched the ball to B1.

You say "show me the rule"

There is a rule against the use of REPLAY equipment. The PA announcer said
The telecast clearly shows I interpret that to mean that the PA announcer is saying Replay shows that B1 missed first base so you better appeal.

In summary: The defense was not going to appeal no matter what the DM / players / Crowd said afterwards otherwise they would have done so. They had plenty of time. Heck F1 was getting ready to pitch and as mentioned if the PA announcer had not opened his mouth F1 would have pitched the ball meaning "off bets off" as far as an appeal goes.

Therefore IMO you do have a rule to use for denying the appeal. Also, even if there was no rule, IMO the defense had no intentions of appealing until they heard the PA announcer.

This was indeed a tough day for the men in blue but in reading Peter's response I don't know how the EJ's could have been avoided. R2/F1 jawing at each other is not the umpires fault and the behavior of the DM is also not their fault. The DM was trying to pull a "fast one"

Pete Booth